Apple TV unveils its new look and feel. It's unnecessary.
Along with the rebrand from ‘Apple TV+’ to just ‘Apple TV,’ the streaming service has today unveiled a new ident.
New Apple TV shows will now launch with this ident:
It’s fine… seems very A24-like (but not quite as cool).
Of course, it mostly just reminds me of how terrible and outdated the HBO ident is nowadays. With the TV static, it is a relic of a bygone era. But the bigger concern is that in this day and age of streaming, digital fuzz on screen just looks horrendous with a few moments of buffering when a show begins.
Please HBO, take it out the back into a paddock (like some of those horses from Luck) and put it out of its misery.
The sound accompanying the new Apple ident was composed by Billie Eilish’s brother Finneas. He told Variety that there are three versions of the ident:
“There’s like the main version, which is five seconds, which is what you hear before episodes of a television show. There’s a one-second version that is just a sting, that might play when you see a movie trailer and they just show the production company. And then there is a longer-form version [of about 12 seconds] which you’ll see it in a movie theater at the start of an Apple studios original film, like ‘Killers of the Flower Moon.’ I tried to make sure that that one felt a little more cinematic and a little grander, because it had more seconds to get from A to B, but it also just felt like it was a different environment.”
What does this mean for Criterion Channel?
There’s some good news today for fans of Wong Kar-Wai - it may have been over a decade since his last film came out, but he was busy working on a TV show. Blossoms Shanghai saw release in China in 2023, but today there’s news it has (official) distribution via The Criterion Channel streaming service.
The show is widely considered to conclude his informal Shanghai trilogy, which also includes In the Mood for Love and 2046.
I note that this is an official release only because the show has been very available on YouTube for some time now. On The Criterion Channel streaming service, it will be revealed on Nov 24.
It launches with the first three episodes, with the following 27 to roll out weekly after that.
But there’s a big twist in the story of this that has caught my interest…
Criterion Channel’s acquisition of the show is for North America. Mubi has the rights for it in foreign territories including France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Brazil, and India.
The Indiewire article about the launch talks about further distribution:
The series was a massive hit when it premiered on the linear network CCTV-8 and the streaming service Tencent Video in December 2023, becoming the most streamed TV show in China and setting advertising records. It also aired on Jade Channel in Hong Kong. In addition to North America, Criterion Channel will also stream the series in UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
Film fans living outside the US and Canada will be well aware that The Criterion Channel isn’t available. So, exactly how is the service going to stream the series into the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand?
Are they just serving as a third-party distributor into these territories? That doesn’t quite feel right to me. Is The Criterion Channel launching in these territories? Will Criterion just open up its paywall to them?
Hopefully I can dig up some answers on this in the coming days. It sure would be great to see a Criterion Channel launch locally…
Coca Cola’s AI slop
It’s hard to imagine the meeting where Coca Cola was pitched the first year on its Christmas campaign video being produced entirely with some pretty average-looking AI video. Even harder to imagine was the meeting where it was decided that it was received well enough to give it a second go.
Yet, here we are.
As per the Wall Street Journal:
Coca-Cola declined to comment on the cost of the campaign, which includes two different commercials made by two artificial-intelligence studios that it said will air in around 140 countries. But Chief Marketing Officer Manolo Arroyo said it was cheaper and speedier to produce than a typical, non-AI production.
Sure, but it still looks cheap and nasty:
The changing state of Australian streaming consumption
Deloitte has released its annual Media & Entertainment Consumption Insights report for 2025. The study explores Australia’s media consumption habits.
What caught my interest this year were the stats that bust the myths around how we spend on streamers.
We hear two narratives around subscription media subscriptions in Australia and abroad:
Because of the increased cost of living pressures, people are cutting back on subscriptions.
Because of the fragmentation of streaming services, customers are annoyed and are returning back to piracy.
Neither are true. There are a number of international surveys that show that piracy has been on the decline for years across every category except anime and manga (Netflix, Disney and Crunchyroll have been highly proactive in efforts to combat this recently).
And then you see reports like this (which isn’t an island) which highlight that Australians are spending more money on subscriptions as they subscribe to more of them. Interestingly, we’re spending less time using our subscriptions which may portend a change in how much we’re subscribing to over the next 12 months).
The two big Deloitte report takeaways:
Australian households now hold an average of 3.7 digital entertainment subs (up from 3.3 in 2024), the biggest jump since the COVID-19 pandemic, and
monthly subscription spend has also increased from $63 to $78.
Despite subscriptions and spend trending up, Australians are spending less time on digital entertainment for the second year in a row – highlighting continued conscious consumption.
Apparently Gen Z households pay $101 per month for subscriptions, which surprised me greatly.
Another narrative busted is just how much account sharing is taking place. Obviously, services have cracked down on outside-of-household account sharing in the past year or two.
The below graph says that 47% of Gen Z are accessing friends or family accounts. I’d be curious to see a breakdown of how many of those are legitimate accounts where you can pay a service subscriber like Netflix for an additional out-of-house user.
But also… Gen Z are generally around 13-28 years-old. How many of the respondents are still living at home (accessing family accounts)? With younger people living at home for longer, this seems pretty likely.
In piracy news….
This tweet hasn’t aged well:
That was smack talk from defendant Jesse Keighin who was just successfully sued by Nintendo for playing pirated games on his live streaming channel, along with the distribution of circumvention tools.
He is paying Nintendo $17,500 in damages.
Read: Torrentfreak
Also:
Meta has argued in a lawsuit it is defending against adult film producer Strike 3 Holdings, which claims Meta downloaded at least 2,396 of their films since 2018, that the company didn’t download the films for AI training - it was for personal use.
Always Be Watching is far too mature to make any jokes about this. Plus also, what happens on the Farmville should stay on the Farmville.
Read: Torrentfreak
News Desk
Don’t expect a (second) Gilmore Girls revival anytime soon. Creator Amy Sherman-Palladino has her next project lined up. She’ll write and direct a kids film for Netflix based on the Eloise book series. Ryan Reynolds will play the bad guy in the film, which has me excited about Reynolds delivering ASP dialogue - that could be really fun. Read: Variety
Jon Stewart has signed a deal to stay on as host of The Daily Show through 2026. Read: NYT
Meanwhile over at GQ there’s a Stephen Colbert feature story where he addresses the cancellation of The Late Show.
TVLine has a decent listicle of Marvel TV characters who you can expect to never see again in the MCU.
Trailer Park
The revamped Sesame Street debuts at new home Netflix from Nov 10.
Lefter: The Story of The Ordinarius debuts on Netflix Nov 14.
A football prodigy rises to fame, battling prejudice and inner turmoil on his quest for greatness.
Operation Safed Sagar debuts on Netflix in 2026.
A squadron of Indian Air Force pilots push beyond their limits to attempt a daring and dangerous mission. Based on true events.
That’s the newsletter for today.
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